Summer Institute 2010's third year pulled 800 teachers together to learn, experience and share in the 141 course offerings designed to spark new ideas in the classroom.

The three-day program gave Beaufort County's teachers an opportunity to take what they know and learn how to teach it in new and different ways. Classes were held this year at Bluffton High School, Bluffton Elementary School and the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island.

According to N'kia Campbell, director of academic inititatives for the school system, this year increased the number of teachers who led the workshops.

"Last year out of 150 courses, about 25 of them were taught by our teachers. This year, out of 141 courses, more than 80 of them are our teachers," Campbell said. "If they go and learn the material, why can't they teach it? We are empowering our teachers to be teacher-leaders."

Following the combined wishes of the district's teachers, the focus remained on literacy, numeracy and technology. Teachers were able to choose their courses and took advantage of lunch time and breaks to meet other teachers with the same interests.

In "Literacy is the Arts," presenter and arts consultant Claudia Cornett shared simple techniques to teach creative problem solving. With the use of a simple image she called a squiggle drawn on a sheet of paper, she had her teacher-students create something using a variety of crayons and markers.

The result was as diverse as the creators but the final drawings were not the whole point of the exercise.

"This is a visual art warm-up that I use to teach problem solving," she said. "Everyone has the same design on their paper. Create something."

The idea is not just to draw but then explain how the finished image came about.

"I encourage data gathering - wander around and look at other ideas, brainstorm, zoom in and out looking at the image and after you are done, evaluate it," Cornett said. "Don't just say you like it. In fact, don't say you like it at all. Say 'I notice,' 'I see,' 'I feel' and why."

Dawn Rowley, project manager and lead trainer for Explore Learning, brought Gizmos to school for her workshop on "Science GIZMOs for Elementary School Teachers."

These weren't the little critters from the movie but a collection of 150-200 computerized learning tools that operated so much like games that the teachers in the workshop were enjoying the challenge of learning.

For Gwen Allen, an engineering and technology teacher for third through fourth grades at the AMES Academy, the workshop was a chance to advance her knowledge of the programs.

"I had seen the Gizmos last year and loved it. So I wanted to get more official training," She said. "I could see how it would work for my students and I wanted to work with a professional and play with it. This is something we can do with a whole class or a small group for math and science."

Among the Gizmos she set aside for her classes next year were Growing Plants, Ocean Tides, Advanced Circuits and Magnetism.

Localizing learning was part of the focus in "Weaving Life, Literature and Art," presented by Paddy Bowman, director of local learning at the National Network for Folk Arts in Education.

As a prime example of how Bowman encourages incorporating local lore and learning into her classrooms in Lafayette, La., one member of the class was not a teacher but is now a Gullah storyteller, educator and historian. The founder of the musical group Gullah Kinfolk, Beaufort native Anita Singleton-Prather has worked to preserve the Gullah culture, forming ASE'-Gullah Education LLC.

"My effort is to incorporate Gullah culture across the school system," Singleton-Prather said.

Bowman's efforts are aimed at combining the talents and knowledge of the teaching artist and the folk artist with the teacher.

One science teacher brought examples of how her students combine vocabulary words with art in field journals created during the course of the school year.

From Assessment in the International Baccalaureate Programs to Creating Digital Portfolios to Wow! Look at the Webpage!, a wealth of specialties were on tap and appreciated by those attending.

"It's really good that they offer this during the summer," said Jeannie Holman, a Bluffton Elementary School pre-kindergarten teacher.

"It's an opportunity to learn more. You get to pick something you're interested in. You earn professional credits which you need. You get to socialize a little bit with co-workers. There are a lot of technology classes being offered."

Such were the remarks of Bluffton kindergarten-first grade teachers Sarah Chancey, Angie McDaniel and Sarah Hankey while eating lunch in the school cafeteria.

Lunch also gave math teachers a chance to take advantage of the opportunity to trade in Texas Instrument's NSpire calculator for a newer model, something David Frazer was happy to do. The Bluffton High Algebra II and pre-calculus teacher said, "this is going to make it more fun.

"I can download programs. If there's a problem I want the students to do, I can send it wirelessly to their calculators," he said. The students are issued calculators at the beginning of the year for school use. "It's really just a hand-held computer that can do graphs, recognizes variables, offers geometry. This is cool."

Cool. That pretty much described the excitement in the workshops every time a teacher discovered something new or had that "aha" moment. And that's the moment the students will experience when their teachers apply the new technologies and skills they learned on their summer vacation.

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